Retro

Dan Banu
The woman grabbed the blanket by the corner and carefully wrapped it around the old man. She searched his palms and found the same picture as every morning, a he and a she, children almost, sitting stiffly next to each other. They suspected it was his first love, but no one could tell for sure. I told you, Grandpa, leave the picture here on the nightstand. I know it's hard for you, it is the same for all of us and she put the picture on the bedside table. Only then did he see the leather sandals. Vasileee. The woman showed her husband her shoes. Then they looked at the picture in horror. The boy had the old man's slippers on his feet.

Alice Bancu
He wanted to strengthen his remaining memory, so he counted. Three vampires, one clown. His niece dressed up as a princess and had the kids over for Halloween. Two ghosts. Weird - a vaguely familiar lady dressed like a movie star from his youth. She greets him by bowing her head graciously and offers him a piece of candy. Dora? The woman smiles and brings her index finger to her lips, according to the silent movie script. They thought he had dozed off. In the morning they found him still in the armchair, holding a photograph of his wife and an old toffee wrapper.

Elena Fermuș
He packed the pizza and put it in his backpack. Suzi, chérie, hurry up. Grandma's waiting for you. Okay, coming. Take a taxi, stop zigzaging through Cismigiu on rolling skates , the pizza's getting cold. That's a good one, maman. Two minutes in the microwave and c'est tout. She slung her backpack over her shoulder and stormed out. And as she rolled down the alley, she came face to face with Lupu. Adi Lupu, a classmate from middle school. You've grown up well, Suzi. And you smell good. Like pizza. The girl opened her backpack. C'est bon? Picnic? Hello, Grandma, why are you so hungry for pizza? Because c'est fini.

(Translated by Alina Bâznă / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)


Real Fiction is a collective project started in 2013 by Florin Piersic Jr. The concept of Real Fiction continued to exist as a Facebook group, after a volume of stories was published at Humanitas Publishing House. (In October 2023, the group has 11,950 members.) The authors write ultra-short stories, with the texts limited to 500 characters (in Romanian, so the length of the English translation might be a little different) - a flash-fiction exercise on a topic that changes every few days. The group's coordinators are Florin Piersic Jr., Gabriel Molnar, Răzvan Penescu, Luchian Abel, and Vlad Mușat. (Drawing by Adrian T. Roman)

Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.